Geeknson Project Management - Business Plan Example

GEEKNSON PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Executive Summary

The aim of this text is to present a Project Management Plan to the business stakeholders and the project manager on the project management for the Geeknson a custom furniture company. The Production Manager wants a detailed review of the project management from the initial step of meeting with the customer, collecting the project requirements, estimating the project budget, estimating the project timeline, to the design and development phase to the decisive step of delivery and closing the project. This project management plan identifies the stakeholders, the requirements, the slack when developing the orders, the critical paths, and the risk in the implemented project management plan. The next section will introduce and define the project aim, requirements and stakeholders.

The Project

As introduced earlier this project main aim is the custom creation of furniture per the customer requirements, the Production Manager is pressed to implement a standardized project management plan for every project the company gets. Their main business is customer bespoke gaming tables and chairs. The current problem is the unknown risks and slack time the current product delivery is experiencing, additionally, there is no definite time and budget to present to their customers when they initiate the project. Alternatively, greatly exaggerating the delivery time when it comes to the finite delivery time thus greatly influencing the project closure. This context aims at presenting a standardized project management plan for every project in the company, with finite project delivery estimations, enhanced risk management plan, better project closure schedule for all projects. The following section details this project management plan objectives. The structure of this project is mainly aimed and defining a proper operation management for the products and service delivery by the Geeknson custom bespoke furniture.

The Project Objectives

The company objectives are:

• To have a standardized project management plan for every project assigned to the company.
• Aim to improve the number of sales annually, by having a finite project delivery timeline and budget estimation strategy.
• Define a finite service delivery process flow from the supplier, to the company to the company customers.
• Defining a well-outlined operation management system as a core part of the organization.
• Develop and deliver the Bespoke custom gaming table and chairs in time.
• Increase the product manufacturing turn around while reducing the required resources but maintaining quality.

The next section and first step in the project management plan are defining the project stakeholders and their roles before commencing the project.

The Company stakeholders and project members definitions

In this section, it defines the project stakeholders, the main company stakeholder, and the project members. The identifying of stakeholders at this stage of the project (standard Geeknson Project management plan for all projects), it to run the project with minimal obstructions because their sooner identification and communication ensure the project always begins as described and the project commences as scheduled (Barker and Cole, 2012). They provide the relevant advice concerning the project, define a reasonable budget and resource allocation depending on the project requirements (Barker and Cole, 2012). In this project, there are two main groups of stakeholders the internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. The internal project stakeholders are the company internal entities that can influence and are directly involved in the project while the external project stakeholders are entities outside the company but directly or directly involved in the project. Therefore, the stakeholders and responsibilities of this project include:

• The Internal Stakeholders
  • Sponsor(s): This is the budget source for the whole business, it is the budget agreed and paid by the customer to the company accounting now made available for the project.
  • Project Manager: The second core of the project. In charge of initiating the project, defining the project team, the timeline, relaying the customer requirements to the project teams, assign tasks to the project team, present the project development progress to the management and customer. Perform quality control on the project (Barker and Cole, 2012). Provide ongoing direction and input while serving as the project central conveyer of information.
  • Management: give the overall decision on every steps and task of the project relay any crucial information to the customer when the need arises. Approve project start or approve project closure. Ensure the project outcomes align with and/ or the customer requirements and company operations. Approve or deny overall budget or project schedule, resource, and staff allocations (L. Bovee et al., 2017).
  • An internal Client or customer (if the project arose from an internal company need or a company member): initiates the project, approves or denies any progress, can cancel, or pause the project when they want to, initiate project start or approve project closure.
  • Painter: once the project is completed they advise, furnish and paint the wood structure delivered.
  • Carpenter(s): ensures the designs fits the overall sketches. Review the project sketches and advice for issues such as alignment, context, the site with compliance with the project specifications and company standards. May be involved in the furniture approval and sketch design process.
  • Sketch Artists: in the initial meeting with the customer and the company and sketches the project according to the customer specifications advice on the context and materials used.
• The external Stakeholders
  • Wood suppliers/ wholesalers: supplies the desired wood materials for the project and advise on the best wood material for a project and best combination for the project.
  • Paint and Brush Suppliers/ Wholesalers: supply the company with the requested furnishing resources and advise on the market trends and best quality products.
  • An external client or customer (the project began due to the contract): initiates a contract, approves changes to a project, defines their probable budget and timeline. Oversees project closure and design approval.
  • Subcontractors: may be contracted when there is an influx of work and the deadline and project closure cannot be terminated or extended.

In this context the above will be grouped in the following groups during the project: the first group are the project owners, there are in charge of initiating, managing and delivering the project to the client. These include Management, Project Manager, and the client. The Second group is the design and development team, they include Sketch artist, Painter, and Carpenter. The following section defines the risk management plan for this project.

The Risk Management Plan

Reducing and mitigating risk is the most crucial part to the project, reducing and managing risks ensure the project delivery efficiency, effectiveness, and impact on the assigned budget (L. Bovee et al., 2017). Based on the case study scenario there are a number of major risks that must be mitigated for a successful project delivery and project closure. These risks include the following:

• The management fails to begin the project on time.
• An inexperienced production manager is tasked with the project.
• The resources are delayed and there is still another project in the development site imposing delayed development of the new project and increasing the development costs.
• The project manager does not ensure the project team and management remain efficient and productive throughout the project.
• Misappropriation of resources and budget. The failure to assign proper space planning, decommissioning plan, assigning a better production team, and a better reallocation timeline plan.
• Miscommunication and communication failure by the suppliers, management and project team.
• Improper project budget estimation.
• Delaying the product delivery by over 2 weeks.

To define the project risks and tasks, the following table is used to define the project viability under the present settings and requirements. The table is used to estimate which projects to start with which resources to allocate and when to use the resources. The table is as illustrated in table A.

Table A. the project resources estimation and allocations plan

# Project

Title

Description

Priority

Dependencies

Budget/ Costs

Expected Benefits

Viability

Relativity

The aim of the above table is reducing the risk of misallocating resources to projects, miscalculation or the costs and budget, miscalculation of the project timeline and viability. The table serves as a beginning of the development of the project breakdown. The priority is rated in High (H) – for most urgent, Medium (M) – for normal delivery, and Low (L) – for a project that is not too urgent (L. Bovee et al., 2017). The table makes the operation process more organized and reduces the number of risks in the entire project, ensuring better and timely project delivery, resources reallocation and budget estimates. This phase initiates after the feasibility study and budget formulation and resource definition. However, the following table B describes the available risks and their effective level of influencing the project management process. The risk level rating is based on the following criteria below.

Risk level Rating matrix

The risk matric is based on two risk assessment criteria:

• Likelihood: the probability the risk will occur.
• Consequences: the severity of the impact of the damage by the risk if it occurs (Lock, 2013).

The above criteria are defined below according to their levels the first criteria likelihood has five levels as illustrated below:

Likelihood of Occurrence

1 – Unlikely: risks that have the lowest level of occurrence a 10 % and below change.

2 – Seldom: risks that have low occurrence changes but cannot be ruled out yet.

3 – Occasional: the risk that has an occurrence rate of 50 %, most probably they will occur.

4 – Likely: the risk that has a probability of 60 to 80 % changes or occurring.

5 – Definite: risks that are going to occur during the project execution, they have a 90 % plus chances of occurring and will definitely cause project failure.

Consequences

The consequences are also based on 5 level criteria such as the likelihood of occurrence the level overall will indicate if the project is a success or failure:

1 – Inconsequential: occurrence of these risks will have a noticeable change rate on the project and in many cases, have no significant consequence of the project execution.

2 – marginal: these risks will result in some form of damages but not that significant to make a permanent difference in the project progress.

3 – Medium: these risks will occur and have a great impact of the project progress, 50 % of the time they will change the project execution, but they can be mitigated to bring the project back to course.

4 – Critical: these risks are highly consequential and have a large damage impact on the project execution resulting in high damages.

5 - Catastrophic: these risks will occur, but the level of damages is so high the project execution fails and consequently the entire project fails.

To have a better risk management plan, the project manager must fill the table below for every project and the total will determine if allowing the risk during the project execution will significantly alter the project execution or will it stop the project. The table is made to rate the risk level and the probable consequences.

Table B. Risk assessment matrix

Risk

Likelihood

Consequences

Rating

The management fails to begin the project on time

3

4

12

An inexperienced production manager is tasked with the project

2

4

8

Delay is supplier delivery

3

4

12

Delay or budget disbandment

3

4

12

Damaged portable electrical appliances, their cables, plugs

2

5

10

Combustible materials meeting or in close proximity to heat sources

2

4

8

The project manager does not ensure the project team and management remain efficient and productive throughout the project

2

5

10

Miscommunication and communication failure by the suppliers, management and project team.

3

5

15

Project execution in a low space proximity not allowing space to move around

2

4

8

Project Team Members having conflicting roles

2

3

6

Staff receiving little support and direction for completing the project

2

3

6

Project team members receiving high demand and excessive requirements by management.

3

3

9

Natural Disaster

2

5

10

Employee failing sick

2

3

6

Low budget estimations

3

4

12

Customer contract termination

2

5

10

The next section describes the process breakdown structure for the project. The steps and what to do during those phases and why they are important to the project execution.

Project Breakdown Structure

The following table C illustrates the main phases of the project, for creating a bespoke custom gaming table with chairs. The table is the simplest Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for all the projects the company undertakes.

Table C

Step 1 – Specifying the Project Requirement

Step 2 – Project Execution

Step 3 – Project Closure

Budget Formulation

Feasibility study

Purchase resources

From the previous table, there are three main sections of project execution and following every project phase. The main project execution phases include Phase – 1 the project initialization, Phase 2 – the project execution and Phase 3 – Project Closure.

The Project WBS and Timeline

The following table is the Project estimated timeline, and resources allocation for each task to complete the project in time. The project time is a task-dependent structure before a task is completed it must wait for the previous task to complete to release the resources for the next task. The resources for this timeline schedule are the Customer, Management, Project Manager, Carpenter, Painter, Supplier, and Deliverer. The project time is based on the top time model. The reason for the top-down model is to remove possible resource allocation deadlocks.

Table D. the Project Timeline Schedule and resources allocation

Task Name

Duration

Start

Finish

Predecessors

Resource Names

Geeknson Furniture WBS

27 days?

Fri 08/12/17

Mon 15/01/18

Project Planning Phase

12.5 days

Fri 08/12/17

Tue 26/12/17

Project Management Plan

6 days

Fri 08/12/17

Fri 15/12/17

Scope Statement

0.5 days

Fri 08/12/17

Fri 08/12/17

Project Manager, Customer, Management

Project Schedule

0.5 days

Fri 08/12/17

Fri 08/12/17

4

Management, Project Manager

Cost Baseline

1 day

Mon 11/12/17

Mon 11/12/17

5

Customer, Management, Project Manager

Risk Management Plan

2 days

Tue 12/12/17

Wed 13/12/17

6

Project Manager

Communication Management Plan

2 days

Thu 14/12/17

Fri 15/12/17

7

Project Manager

Project Team Selection

2.5 days

Mon 18/12/17

Wed 20/12/17

8

Role Assignment

0.5 days

Mon 18/12/17

Mon 18/12/17

8

Project Manager

Sketching

1 day

Mon 18/12/17

Tue 19/12/17

10

Carpenter, Sketch Artist

Building material Specification

1 day

Tue 19/12/17

Wed 20/12/17

11

Carpenter, Project Manager

Relocation Schedule

2 days

Wed 20/12/17

Fri 22/12/17

12

Management, Project Manager

Suppliers Management

2 days

Fri 22/12/17

Tue 26/12/17

Supplier Management

1 day

Fri 22/12/17

Mon 25/12/17

13

Project Manager

Contract Allocation

1 day

Mon 25/12/17

Tue 26/12/17

15

Project Manager

Project Execution Phase

7.5 days

Tue 26/12/17

Thu 04/01/18

Status Report

0.5 days

Tue 26/12/17

Tue 26/12/17

16

Project Manager

Prepare Site

1 day

Wed 27/12/17

Wed 27/12/17

18

Carpenter

Cut and shape wood Pieces

1 day

Thu 28/12/17

Thu 28/12/17

19

Carpenter

Assemble Wood Pieces

1 day

Fri 29/12/17

Fri 29/12/17

20

Carpenter

Furnish Assembled pieces

4 days

Mon 01/01/18

Thu 04/01/18

21

Painter

Project Closure

7 days

Fri 05/01/18

Mon 15/01/18

Test Product Quality and Durability

1 day

Fri 05/01/18

Fri 05/01/18

22

Carpenter, Project Manager

Disassemble complete product

1 day

Mon 08/01/18

Mon 08/01/18

24

Carpenter

Package for delivery

1 day

Tue 09/01/18

Tue 09/01/18

25

Painter

Delivery to customer

4 days

Wed 10/01/18

Mon 15/01/18

26

Delivery

Project End

From the above project estimation timeline to complete the project it is estimated at 27 days from contract initialization to successful Project Closure.

The Communication Plan

For every project successful execution, there must be Communication Plan, aiming at ensuring the resources are effectively distributed and eliminate possible deadlocks (Lock, 2013). The first communication is the revisions table, to document the changes throughout the project execution timeline. The table is structured below and must be completed by the project manager during the project execution. The table below has an example to direct the user on how to use the revision table. These changes are used to monitor any change in the set budget and execution timeline. Additionally, it is used to mitigate risks that may arise during the execution process. The aim of this communication management plan is to provide the following:

• Define the stakeholders’ communication requirements
• Communications analysis, design, execution, and evaluation.
• Handling triggered and recurring communications.
• Define the project’s communication standards
• Establish the best communication matrix for all involved.
• Create project execution awareness and updates.
• Encourage communications between the groups.

Table D. Project Revisions Table

Revision Version

Change Description

Author

Effective Date

v1

Change the color coating and thickness

Painter, Carpenter

10/20/17

V2

Change the table legs designs

Carpenter

10/21/17

V3

Change the wood for the project

Management

10/18/17

V4

Change the project team

Project Manager

1019/17

V5

Alter the allocated budget

Management, Project Manager

10/20/17

V6

Change the project site

Project Manager

10/22/17

V7

Change the product delivery time

Management, Project Manager

11/15/17

The following are the project communication media, Fact Sheets, Frequently Asked Questions, Posters/ Signs, Facilitated Group Meetings, Project Team Intranet, and Stakeholders’ Intranet. There is a meeting each week to discuss any changes and progress made every week, the following are the meetings guidelines.

• Meeting Agenda: distributed 1 day prior to the actual meeting. The first agenda is reviewing the previous meeting.
• Meeting Minutes: distributed 2 working days after the meeting, including meeting title, date, notes, and actions discussed.
• Action Items: recorded in minutes and agenda.
• Meeting Chair Person: distributes the meeting agenda
• Note Taker: documents all meeting items
• Time Keeper: facilitates and ensures everyone at the meeting adheres to the set timeline limits.

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